The Tropical Hothouse (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew)

The Tropical Hothouse (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew)

Author: Chris Thorogood

Publisher: Paperscapes

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780233006017

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The Tropical Hothouse features press-out shapes, enabling you to transform the book into a work of art, creating a landscape of over 50 rare and exotic hothouse plants.


The Golden Age of Botanical Art

The Golden Age of Botanical Art

Author: Martyn Rix

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-09-02

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 022611984X

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The seventeenth century heralded a golden age of exploration, as intrepid travelers sailed around the world to gain firsthand knowledge of previously unknown continents. These explorers also collected the world’s most beautiful flora, and often their findings were recorded for posterity by talented professional artists. The Golden Age of Botanical Art tells the story of these exciting plant-hunting journeys and marries it with full-color reproductions of the stunning artwork they produced. Covering work through the nineteenth century, this lavishly illustrated book offers readers a look at 250 rare or unpublished images by some of the world’s most important botanical artists. Truly global in its scope, The Golden Age of Botanical Art features work by artists from Europe, China, and India, recording plants from places as disparate as Africa and South America. Martyn Rix has compiled the stories and art not only of well-known figures—such as Leonardo da Vinci and the artists of Empress Josephine Bonaparte—but also of those adventurous botanists and painters whose names and work have been forgotten. A celebration of both extraordinarily beautiful plant life and the globe-trotting men and women who found and recorded it, The Golden Age of Botanical Art will enchant gardeners and art lovers alike.


Natural Rubber

Natural Rubber

Author: Shinzo Kohjiya

Publisher: Smithers Rapra

Published: 2015-02-19

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 191024208X

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This book presents the story of natural rubber, explaining its historical, social and scientific significance towards sustainable development. Hevea is a natural rubber-yielding tree and is among a few plants that have deeply impacted upon civilisation by having made present-day transportation networks possible: tyres made of natural rubber have enabled airplanes to fly, automobiles, buses, trucks and off-the-road vehicles to move. Rubbery elastic materials are indispensable in modern technology and even in the medical arena a pair of natural rubber gloves, used in surgical operations, are imperative for the safety of patients as well as medical staff.This tropical tree is one of man's most recently domesticated plants after the odyssey from the Amazon to England and then to Asia, when modern science was just establishing in the 18th century. The plantations in Asia managed to agriculturally mass-produce natural rubber at the beginning of the 20th century, just in time for the industrial mass production of automobiles. The reason why the cultivation of it has failed in the Amazon is discussed extensively taking Fordlandia, 1928aE '1945, as an example.In the story, the unique elastic properties of natural rubber are explained and discussed in terms of modern science, and its influence toward the 21st century is analysed with sustainable development in mind.Not only students, researchers and engineers related to natural rubber but also those interested in sustainable development will find this book informative, evoking his or her deliberation on our future.


Nature Inside

Nature Inside

Author: Penny Sparke

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2020-01-01

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0300244029

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The story of how plants and flowers have shaped interior design for over 200 years From ferns in 19th-century British parlors to contemporary "living walls" in commercial spaces, plants and flowers have long been incorporated into the design of public and private spaces. Spanning two centuries, Nature Inside explores the history and popularity of indoor plants, revealing the close relationship between architecture, interior design, and nature. Studying the international modern interior through the lens of plants in the human environment, author Penny Sparke attributes a degree of the interest in indoor plants to urbanization, and, more recently, the climate crisis, which serve as ongoing reminders that people must maintain a connection to, and respect for, the natural world. While architectural and interior design styles have evolved alongside the popularity of various plant species, the human need to bring nature indoors has remained constant.